HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.			993
depose the Queen. I have to be on hand any time after 12 o'clock. The call will be one tap of the bell. ' Tower 
Bell.'" Knowing my man well as one of the unemployed, and knowing that his sympathies were the other way, I 
said, "What do you get for that job?" "One hundred dollars cash, $2.50 a day and board afterwards, and the 
promise of a billet of not less than $300 a month." "Who made you the promise?" "Thurston." The man is still 
connected with the revolutionists, and is willing to make the statement to Mr. Blount himself.
I said "Do you mean fight? " Answer: "Why, the United States forces will support us." After 12 o'clock I kept 
on the lookout for that one tap of the bell. At 2 p. m. my assistant, whom I had sent to pay a bill to E. O. Hall & 
Son, rushed in and said, "John Good just came to Hall's to get arms, got them into his express wagon; a policeman 
went to stop the wagon and Good shot him in the breast."
They drove up King street, supposed to go to the armory on Beretania street. I started on foot to the armory, 
which is close to my office. Saw a few men there, amongst them the man Gardiner, and went to the club, still 
watching for that one tap of the bell. I got to the club at 2:15 p. m., met there several people, amongst them C. A. 
Brown, who had been prominent in the 1887 revolution, and who, I knew by Charles Carter and others, to be one 
of the committee of public safety. He had no arms and wore a morning suit.
I said: "Well, Brown, you are going to depose the Queen at the stroke of the bell." He said; "How do you 
know?" I answered " Never mind," I added " I understood that you will be supported by Stevens." He said "Well 
you have got it pretty straight. That's just how it is." "You are waiting for the tap of the bell," said I. (The tower is 
close to the club.) He said, "Yes."
At half past 2 o'clock I heard the one tap. He (Brown) started at a good pace. I followed. He went into thy 
Government building and I stopped outside the fence in the street leading from King to Queen street. My glance 
could not count more than 20 people about, outside of the Boston men who were under arms in Mr. Nacayama's 
yard, in the lane between the said yard and Arion Hall and under the veranda of Arion Hall.
Gatling guns were drawn up in Nacayama's yard.
A few minutes before 3 p. m. an unknown person-Mr. Cooper, I heard since, a perfect stranger-now judge-
read a proclamation of which I only heard a part.
I went to the barracks. There were the Hawaiian troops, one hundred or so in number, ready for action if 
ordered out.
I went to the station house, and saw a number of foreigners rushing in and putting themselves at the disposal of 
the marshal. Before an hour had elapsed I found out that Mr. Stevens had already recognized the Provisional 
Government and that the Queen had ordered, under protest, the surrender of the barracks and station house to avoid 
bloodshed. I can assure you, Mr. Blount, that the Queen's Government was perfectly competent to take care of the 
situation; that the force in the Government building had no arms nor ammunition to speak of, and that the whole 
game was one of bluff, a surprise, a coup de main, as we call it in French. Why? The clerks in the Government 
building were at their desks; the routine of the various departments was going on. A handful of filibusters, backed 
by Mr. Stevens and Captain Wiltse, did the job; and the Queen and her friends, trusting to redress from the United 
States, yielded to avoid bloodshed, and with the full knowledge
F R 94-APP II--63

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